Getting Closer to a Cure for Type 1 Diabetes?

This morning, my husband woke me with a London Times headline that declared, “Diabetes: a cure at last” (I am in London for the week). It was as if the scene was playing out in my dreams. Rubbing my eyes, I looked at him with my rumpled brow and said, “Don’t be silly.”

That’s what 38 years of living with an incurable disease like type 1 diabetes does to a person. My scepticism and fear of disappointment were in charge. In fact, I felt angry with the English Press – how dare they make such an ignorant assumption!

But upon closer inspection, and looking at other reports – I began to feel differently. When I realised Professor Doug Melton and his team at Harvard have figured out how to regenerate beta cells, my weakened legs forced me to sit down and I became slowly entangled in a news vacuum – digesting every word. I have been watching this scientist and his team for the past 10 years. Melton and the team at Harvard do not fool around nor would they ever make such a declaration of “CURE” unless the declaration had basis for truth.

Melton, who completed his PhD in molecular biology at Trinity College, Cambridge, is a Harvard professor whose son at 6 months was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Melton switched his scientific research then to focus on a cure. His daughter was also diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 14 years. Melton said in an interview with the Times, “It was gratifying to know that we could do something that we always thought was possible, but many people felt wouldn’t work.”

My first thought? Something other than injectable insulin could work? While there are other efforts doing similar research such as Viacyte’s encapsulation, no one is this far along and furthermore – no pharmaceutical entity is backing Melton which I believe “means” the motive is pure. Commercial profit is not often found in science labs these days and this need for profit over human lives is also blamed for the type 1 diabetes cure “elusiveness.”

Here’s what we know:

– Melton and his team have created a supply of beta cells from human embryonic cells. Scientists have been trying to do this for decades but Melton finally cracked the code and has found the way. Additionally, Melton has been able to create beta cells from pluripotent cells avoiding the controversy around use of human embryonic cells.

(The video shows the culture of human embryonic stem cells into beta cells. At the end, each of the six red flasks contains enough beta cells for transplantation into one patient.)

-15 years of research: the team carefully tracked the formation of beta cells during development, looking at which genes turned on and off. They tried to emulate the process, triggering those same genes to go on and off using chemicals and growth factors. The resulting procedure takes about 40 days and involves six steps. The researchers were able to make the insulin-secreting cells in the quantities that would be needed to treat patients.

-Making new cells provides “half the solution to the problem” of type 1 diabetes, Melton said. The team still needs to find a way to protect those cells from rejection by the immune system once they’re implanted. Melton is working with MIT applied biology professor Daniel Anderson to design an implantable device that would work like an inkjet printer, coating the cells in an algae-like substance so immune cells can’t stick to them.

-Melton said it will take another year of work to be able to produce cells the government would consider for testing in people. He predicts it will take an additional two years of testing before his approach could begin helping large numbers of patients.

-Funding comes from: the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, NIH, Helmsley Charitable Trust, the JPB Foundation and the generosity of M. and A. Barry. D.G. is a consultant for The Jackson Laboratory.

What the experts say:

Professor Melton: “We’re tired of curing mice. Most patients are sick of hearing that something’s just around the corner; I’m sick of thinking things are just around the corner. But I do believe in the big picture.”

Chris Mason, Professor of Regenerative Medicine at University of Chicago said it would be, “a medical game-changer on a par with antibiotics and bacterial infections.”

Jose Oberholtzer, and expert in transplantation at the University of Illinois at Chicago said, “It will leave a dent in the history of diabetes.”

Let’s give Doug Melton and the Harvard team time to get this right, including our patience, encouragement and respect. If my instincts are on the right path (and I generally think they are), this could be the start of a brand new way of life for millions living with type 1 diabetes.

Elizabeth Snouffer, a healthcare journalist, consultant, and content provider, has lived with type 1 diabetes for nearly four decades. Although she began her communications career in New York, eventually she was transferred to Europe living in Rome, London then to Asia in Hong Kong and Singapore writing and speaking about healthcare and advocating for all types of diabetes.Today, Elizabeth is the editor for the International Diabetes Federation (Brussels) publication, Diabetes Voice and is writer editor for Diabetes247.org. For more information about Elizabeth, visit Diabetes247.org.

Comments

This is excellent news on the forefront of islet care. As of right now islet therapy will be dependent on cadavers. So to be able to generate islets like this is great news…BUT….A CURE for Type1 diabetes has 2 steps…. 1. STOP THE AUTOIMMUNE ATTACK (See Dr Denise Faustman, Phase2 Human trials). 2. REGENERATION or a supplement of islets like this to complete the job. Without either, its therapy. NOT CURE

there is a faster cure using some of there tech.. in a Type 2 Diabetic as example all they need is to take a sample of what cells are healthy then create a new pancreas once that I done we go in to the hospital and since its well made from our own bodies their is no meds to take and we just have to watch what we eat so we don’t end up burning it out a second time its fairly easy at least to me.. anyone want to get back to me feel free we can talk in face book.

Calm down, Lisa. Paul wasn’t suggesting that T-1’s burn out their pancreas, just that some T-2’s do and could sure use this technology to replace their ‘burnt out’ pancreas without having to worry about rejection.

When my mother found out I had type 1 diabetes in 1969, her words to me were maybe in your lifetime they will find a cure. I have had type one now for 45 years. My mom is no longer alive but maybe her words will come true.

You’re all delusional if you think this is a cure. You’re delusional if you truly believe they will ever find a cure. The fact is, they don’t even know what CAUSES diabetes — they have only speculated what the cause (or multitudes of causes) may be — but no one yet knows the ONE REAL cause of diabetes. Too bad they’re spending YOUR money trying to come up with a cure for something they don’t even understand. How can you cure something you don’t know anything about? If you’re still at odds with what’s actually causing diabetes (and it can ONLY BE ONE THING!), how can you begin to invent a cure? What exactly are you fighting, anyway? Sure, you know what makes our blood glucose rise and you know that insulin plays a major role, and you even know what foods to avoid once you have diabetes, but do you know what’s making people get diabetes? Instead of tinkering with a cure, why not find out what’s causing this widespread disease, in the first place? Learn to crawl before you learn to walk! And remember, our bodies and germs are far smarter than scientists. Germs take a beating sometimes, but then they come back with a vengeance. Our bodies can fight to a certain degree, but there’s just no way a human being can wrap his brains around an ever-mutating germ. So, please! But, hey — I give you an “A” for effort! Focus your attention on a cause before you try to find a cure, OK? Thanks, I really appreciate it! (Visit myabetes(dot)blogspot(dot)com for more information.)

Why don’t you just leave the scientific work to the experts. All this negativity about this research makes me ill. You are obviously the type of person who enjoys dashing other people’s hopes. Who are you angry at anyway? Cures for other diseases were discovered, and I have no doubt that there were skeptics, like you, back in those days. God gave mere mortal men the ability and knowledge to do the work that they are doing, and I trust that He will lead them to find a cure.

The thing is: this is not something new. And it is not really a cure for the long term. As most of you (should) know, is that -indeed- the beta cells in the liver got destroyed in the case of type 1. Before regeneration of beta cells, even a liver transplant was a possible cure.

The real issue is: how do we prevent that the body is going to destroy the beta cells all over again? It’s an auto-immune reaction, just like any allergy is. So without a solution on this front, jump-starting the insulin factory in the liver is only going to be a solution for maybe a few weeks or so.

My question is once these beta cells are created and implanted, will these beta cells communicate with the Alpha cells that are already in the type 1 patient? Alpha cells become impaired when the beta cells have been attacked by our immune system. Or will this infusion be the actual islet cells themselves?